The price of Bitcoin rose by over 15% on Monday and hit a new all-time high of above $44,000 as electric car company Tesla Inc revealed it purchased $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin to ensure “more flexibility to further diversify and maximize returns on our cash.”
According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Tesla also announced that it would start using Bitcoin as the payment method in exchange for its products as well.
The filing comes amid Elon Musk’s recent social media campaign that led to the surge of some cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ether, Ripple’s XRP and Dogecoin.
At the same time, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey recently set up his own Bitcoin node and late last year, his payments company, Square Inc bought $50 million in bitcoin. At the time, Bitcoin was trading at about $11,000.
On Monday, Bitcoin traded 13.2% to $44,900 at 8:22 am Eastern Time.
China Begins Trial of Digital Currency
Meanwhile, People’s Bank of China on Monday said it will be releasing about $1.5 million as a “try-out” of the central bank’s digital currency dubbed e-yuan.
The Chinese central bank will choose 50,000 people from a pool of applicants who will be given 200 yuan ($30) in the digital currency that they will be able to spend at specific locations across the country.
However, this digital currency won’t be similar to decentralized cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.
READ;
Crypto Prices Rise As Global Central Banks Explore Digital Currency Possibilities
